Under the Planets
by jackie burkhart
Summary: Riley has been gone for nearly a whole summer so her and her friends are determined to make the last two weeks of freedom count. Multi-chapter Rilaya fic. Rating may change.
1. Chapter 1

_'_ _Holy…'_ Maya thinks to herself when she sees her best friend step off the green and blue bus, bags hanging off her arms. Apparently people can change a lot in two months, two weeks, three days, and 13 hours. That's how long she's been gone. Maya wasn't counting or anything. It was a summer Riley had to spend without a phone; the only contact between the two was through handwritten letters where Riley would tell her every detail of every day and wish Maya was there with her. Maya would write how boring summer was without her and how as much as she loves Farkle, Lucas, and Zay, she missed Rileytown. She missed her girl.

Maya never understood the appeal of summer camp. Especially because they were sophomores now and they needed to start taking their summers seriously. Luckily for them, they had two weeks of summer bliss left before school started.

Maya immediately tackled Riley into a hug, pushing her up against the bus. Riley dropped her bags and wrapped her arms around her friend. She decided she was never leaving Maya for the summer ever again. Or any time for that matter.

"Peaches!" Riley says into Maya's hair. She's got a death grip on Maya and it's starting to affect the girl's breathing. Riley realizes this so instead she takes Maya's hand and picks up her bags with the other. She notices that Maya is still a little out of breath. She remembers not to squeeze so hard next time.

Riley drags Maya to where her parents are parked while waiting for her and starts talking about the rest of their summer plans.

"Bon fires!" She exclaims loudly as they settle into the back seat of Topanga's car. "With s'mores!"

"As long as we get Reece's cups instead of Hershey's squares," Maya negotiates.

"AND WE CAN PULL OUT THE TENT!" Riley squealed.

"What." Maya deadpanned. Why the hell for? Camping time is over.

"I'm going to get you to like camping so you can come with me next year!" Riley says, squeezing Maya's hand as they ride along in the back seat.

Riley decided she was never leaving Maya; which is why she intends to take her with everywhere she goes. Camping, college, retirement home, etc.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, Riley. No." Maya said, shaking her head.

"Why not? We can move my bed and set it up in my room! We don't even have to sleep outside."

She knew that was a huge reason Maya didn't like camping. As much as she loved the stars in the sky, she didn't trust the nature on the ground. Poison ivy, bugs, bears probably. Who knows. Not Maya.

"So you want to move your comfy bed to sleep on the floor?"

Riley nodded while giving Maya a bright smile.

"Camping doesn't make any sense," Maya stated.

"I didn't hear a 'no'!" Riley beamed.

"You did. Like 30 seconds ago."

"I didn't hear _another_ 'no'," she said, grinning at Maya.

Maya rolled her eyes and looked out her window as they entered the city again. She looked back at Riley who was still smiling like a goofball. How could she say no to this girl?

"Fine," she breathed out.

"YAAAAAY!" Riley let out, bouncing a little in her seat.

"This better be worth it, Matthews. Not only do I want Reece's cups, but I want ice cream, _and_ your comfiest pillow."

"You got it, Peaches," Riley said, scooting even closer to Maya in the back seat. She rested her head on her shoulder and fell asleep for the last fifteen minutes it took them to get home.


	2. Chapter 2

_Hey everyone. I hope you all had a nice holiday break! I'm going to do my best to keep up with this story. I just got a laptop for Christmas so it shouldn't be too hard, as long as I get all my homework in on time._

 _Disclaimer: Of course I don't own Girl Meets World or Boy Meets World or really anything tbh I'm broke af_

 ** _Enjoy reading!_**  
_

Maya got what she wanted. She rolled herself a nice cocoon out of Riley's big, gray comfy blanket. It was like being held by a cloud. She nibbled on some Reese's peanut butter cups, small pieces of chocolate falling on the blanket every once in a while. Maya would quickly pick up the pieces and eat them, of course. She couldn't get chocolate go to waste or let anything happen to this marvelous blanket.

Riley was in the middle of her room, trying to set up the tent. The bed was turned to its side and pushed up against the longest wall in Riley's room, giving the two of them plenty of space of indoor camping activities. Maya still wasn't sure what kind activities these were but Riley was very precise about how much room they would need.

"You doin' okay, honey?" Maya asked as she watched Riley struggle with the tent.

Riley tripped and fell into the tent, knocking down the only pole that had managed to stay put this whole time.

"You just put this tent together like two months ago," Maya said, still wrapped up in Riley's blanket, clearly not willing to help. Not yet, anyway. She liked to watch Riley get all worked up and frustrated before diving in to help her out. She always thought Riley looked cute with her cheeks tinged red.

"I paid somebody to put it up," she said, ducking her head in shame. "I'm an imposter! I shouldn't be allowed to wear this special camping badge," Riley said, pinching the side of the badge pinned on her shirt that said "ULTIMATE CAMPER" with a rainbow above the lettering.

Maya knew it was time to jump in.

"Let me do it," she said, putting down her Reese's cups and wiggling out of her blanket/shell.

"Maya, you don't even know how," Riley said, still giving the instructions and poles to Maya.

"Yeah, well neither do you, so let me figure it out or we'll never get to sleep."

Riley looked at her watch. It was only 6:30. 'She's always trying to get me to bed early,' Riley thought to herself. 'Only when she's not having fun.'

She started to feel guilty for forcing Maya into an impromptu camping session in her room and Maya picked up on the mood shift in the room faster than it changed.

"Hey," Maya said, grabbing Riley's hands. "I only meant you kind of suck at putting a tent up. Nothing more, okay?"

Riley smiled. Maya always knew what she was thinking, didn't she?

"Okay," Riley exhaled, feeling better already.

She really wanted Maya to have a good time, especially because she was gone for so long and the more she thinks about how much time she spent away from Maya, the more she regrets it. Being away from her would have been harder had there been fewer distractions. But with there always being something to do, Riley only wished Maya was with her, not that she was back home.

Now that Riley was back and Maya was with her, she suddenly felt like camp was a waste of time.

Riley had fun at camp. Yeah, she missed her friends, but she still had a good time. But the more time spent with Maya, the more Riley's memory of camp warps. She starts to remember the not so good parts like the giant storm that washed away her disposable camera or the wasp nest she walked into, getting her stung three times.

Riley realizes the feeling of being home with Maya is better than anything she did at camp. She thinks to herself that it's kind of like the first time she couldn't remember what it felt like to wake up from her tonsillectomy. She knows it was horrible. She remembers she was in pain. But no matter how hard she tries, she can't even begin to remember the physical feeling of it. And every pain after that was "the worst pain I've ever felt". Riley knew that technically, the worst pain she ever felt was after her surgery but since she couldn't remember how her throat ached and how nothing soothed the burn, every new pain was worse than the last; even when it really wasn't.

"And because I'm so happy here and now, I can't remember how happy I was just a few days ago," Riley says out loud – not meaning to.

"Huh?" Maya says, only half paying attention as she finishes up the tent. "You were unhappy a few days ago?" She asks after mishearing Riley. Maya has a concerned look on her face. She had worried about Riley going to camp. Even though 99% of people love Riley, there are some assholes in the world who will try to tear her down. Maya couldn't protect Riley at camp. She considered going just to keep a look out for her, but ultimately it was too expensive. She never told Riley that.

"No, Peaches. I was fine. I just missed you is all," Riley said, looking into Maya's eyes. There was something heavy about the way she said she missed Maya, and Maya felt it. Her stomach dropped – but not in a bad way. Kind of like the way it does when you're on a roller coaster.

"I missed you too, Riles," Maya said, quietly. She suddenly felt like she could cry. Of course she wouldn't. She's Maya. But she could. And she wasn't sure why.

* * *

What about… BAMBI," Riley suggested.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were into watching baby animal's lose their parents to murder," Maya said, taking the DVD from Riley's hand and sending it flying like a Frisbee across the room. She picked up The Lion King and sent that one flying too.

"So, no Disney," Riley stated.

"Not a one," Maya replied. She dug through drawers of DVDs Riley's family kept in the living room. They were placed by genre so she shut the animated feature drawer and opened up the horror/thriller drawer.

"Maya, no," Riley said, clearly nervous.

"Maya YES," she replied, grabbing a couple DVDs.

"If you ever want to get me to sleep, you will put those back right away."

"C'mon Riles, they're not that bad. This one," she said, holding up a copy of the original Halloween, "is a perfect starter for you. It's pretty tame."

"Compared to real life murder, maybe," Riley replied frantically.

"Okay fine," Maya said, rolling her eyes and putting the DVD back.

With Riley constantly suggesting happy and mostly animated films and Maya begging Riley with her movie choices, it took about five minutes for them to finally settled upon something to watch: Jawbreaker. Riley had never seen it so it was easy for Maya to pass it off as a film about a bunch of girls working at a candy shop.

* * *

"MAYA!" Riley yelled before ducking her head into Maya, protecting herself from seeing the screen.

"It's just a body," Maya said nonchalantly.

"You said this was about a candy," Riley said, though her words were muffled by Maya's chest.

"It is," Maya paused. "It's about candy getting lodged in a girl's throat on her birthday and she dies in the trunk of her friend's car."

"You said there would be a candy shop and musical numbers."

"I lied," Maya said, dragging Riley off of her. The absence of contact was almost non-existent as Maya draped her arm around Riley and brought her close.

"I hate you," Riley said with a pout.

"You don't," Maya said with a smile.

"I want to." The pout stayed.

"You don't." Maya's smile grew but her eyes didn't leave the screen.

"How do you know?" Riley said, obviously joking around, the way Rileys do.

Maya took Riley's hand in her own. Their interlocked fingers rested in Maya's lap as they watched the rest of the movie.


End file.
